The Frozen Spring

 

She turned from an offered rose one dawn,

Its crimson promise left undone;

And where its tender fragrance fell,

A silent kingdom lost its spell.

***

Summer unfolded its golden wings,

Yet dust gathered on forgotten things.

Letters slept in a Himalayan cedar chest,

Pressed with petals and unrest;

Their fading words, like tides withdrawn,

Left only traces they had worn.

***

Beneath an autumn lamp there stood

A weathered bench of aging wood.

The wind rehearsed old melodies

Among the darkening apple trees;

Where laughter might have lingered long,

Only shadows learned the song.

***

One evening, under amber skies,

She watched a pair of swallows rise.

Twig by twig, their fragile art

Wove a shelter, heart to heart.

The nest beneath the cottage eave

Held all she could not yet believe.

***

Across the fields young children run and played,

Untroubled by the lengthening shade.

The earth spoke softly through the years

Of love abandoned to its fears;

And every leaf that touched the ground

Whispered truths she had not found.

***

Then winter crossed the hills in gray,

And with it came a bitter day.

No farewell lingered in the air,

No final word was waiting there.

A distant road, a fleeting breath-

And silence bore the news of death.

***

That night she lit a single flame

Beside a photograph and name.

Its worn-out edges caught the light

Like fragments rescued from the night.

Through trembling hands and falling tears,

She touched the face preserved by years.

***

Outside, the snow began to fall,

Softly whitening field and wall.

The stars looked down through veils of white,

Ancient witnesses of the night.

And somewhere in the drifting cold

Lay all the words left untold.

***

Now seasons circle, year by year,

Yet still she keeps his memory near.

For some loves bloom and brightly start,

While others flower within the heart.

And hers remains, through frost and pain-

A spring that never came again.